Genesis Deep Study Passage

Background: Joseph was betrayed by his jealous brothers and sold into slavery. After many years of various trials, God led Joseph to become the “prime minister” of Egypt and gave him the wisdom to store up food for a coming famine. Eventually he was reunited with his brothers, who feared he might seek revenge.

Genesis 50:20 (NCV)
"You meant to hurt me, but God turned your evil into good to save the lives of many people, which is being done."

Riddle:
What does everybody like to recieve, but very few are willing to give readily?

massages?
understanding?
grace?
forgiveness?
advice?

well...not advice. that's the opposite, everybody gives it readily, but few of us recieve it.

anyway...

we all want understanding for our shortcomings..."it's bc of my background...it's bc of my environment...i didn't really mean it that way...i was just stressed...it's that time..."

please, understand!

we all want understanding.

we all also want grace. we don't want people to remember our faults...we want to erase our past failures...we are hurt and insulted when someone brings up something we did weeks (months...or years) ago.

how could they do that? why can't they let bye gones be bye gones?

we all want grace.

the same with forgiveness...we want it...we certainly need it. we'd forgive us (or so we think). we are dismayed when someone can't overlook something we did to hurt them.

but in my experience, i found people are reluctant to be understanding, to be gracious and to forgive...

and that is very sad.

it is like massages...we like to get them...we need them from time to time...but we don't get anything out of giving them and therefore don't want to.

but these are all selfless acts...and Christ calls us to follow Him into selflessness...